Monday, 20 February 2017

“It’s funny, having
worked so hard to make a living out of music I found once I’d got
there that I’d broken myself in the process. I needed a break to do
some, uh, emotional housekeeping.”

Marc Heal's
contributions to Industrial Rock cannot be understated. In the 90's
behind the helm of Cubanate, and as a producer as well as hired gun
for some of the biggestbeing an elder statesment of industrial music.
names in the scene he has done more than enough to ensure his place
in musical history. After the dissolution of Cubanate, Heal took
a long hiatus from making music until hooking up with Raymond Watts
for the Pig Vs MC Lord Of The Flies release 'Compound Eye Sessions'
EP in 2015. Since then there has been no stopping Heal. First came
the release of the 'Adult Fiction' single, followed by his first solo
full-length studio release 'The Hum', and then the very unexpected
live reformation of Cubanate. We caught up with Heal to talk
about his latest album, breaking free of the past and being an elder
statesman of industrial music.

Intravenous
Magazine: The Hum was released last year – how do you feel it has
been received so far?

Marc Heal: It
seems to have gone down very well. There have been many kind reviews.
Mind you, the age of the bad review has gone, hasn’t it? I haven’t
seen one of those old-school, bilious, scathing reviews in a long
time. Every writer is a “scene” writer, which is good in one way,
they know what they’re talking about, but it makes them nervous
about being properly critical.

Now that the album been
out two or three months my excitement has faded. I’m in a kind of
post partum depression. You think, “Is that it?” I’m wondering
what comes next. I make difficult music, I know it’s hard to
pigeonhole. I wish I could be more commercially minded.

IVM: After such
a long time away from making music was there any trepidation about
releasing this as solo material rather than under a moniker?

MH: Yes, I was
nervous. You’re supposed to think of a cool handle in this scene
aren’t you? But I didn’t think it was appropriate. 'The Hum' is
personal and it’s different from the usual fodder so it seemed a
bit stupid to give it a “cool” project name. There’s something
healthy about exposing yourself like that. Does you good.

Actually I have a side
project that I’ve been thinking about for years, it’s an album
called “Falz Kompilation”. Each “act” on the compilation is
me in the guise of a different fantasy industrial band. So there’s
my German hard EBM project, Fritzl. There’s the US hardcore outfit,
Hurtymen (probably from the east coast, channelling angry Jared
Louche-esque beat poet vocals). There’s a sort of early Throbbing
Gristle project called Porridge Gun. Plus the Industrial Riot Grrrl
three piece, Cameltoe Rust. Oh, and a Slovenian primal scream thing
with the working title of Melania.

IVM: You're
reputation with acts such as Cubanate obviously precedes you but what
led to you taking your hiatus from music and what led to the decision
to start making music again?

MH: By the end
of the 90’s I was in a rut and I lacked confidence. No, not
confidence, interest. I wasn’t interested in what I was making
anymore. Also I was drinking a lot. That numbs the nerves. At that
time I had a lot of money from Gran Turismo royalties. I mean really
quite a lot. It’s funny, having worked so hard to make a living out
of music I found once I’d got there that I’d broken myself in the
process. I needed a break to do some, uh, emotional housekeeping.

I also realised that
things were moving against me. That was around the start of that
synthy-poppy thing with VNV and all those bands. I never got that.

More than anything, I
wanted to do something else. There’s something moronic about
touring. I couldn’t bear the prospect of just being in a band all
my life. I needed to be grounded. To work. Unlike a lot of artists
I’m interested in business. So, I set up some studios. I tried my
hand at a few things – managing band, licensing. I had a couple of
kids. Eventually I ended up in TV production.

After I worked with
Raymond on 'Compound Eye' I became more interested in music again.
Then I wrote The Sussex Devils. That was the best way to break a
creative logjam.

IVM: Stylistically
and thematically what were your inspirations when making 'The Hum'?

MH: It was
around the time of Bowies’s death. It wasn’t that I was listening
to Bowie. I couldn’t actually, for quite some time. But 'Blackstar'
did make me think about being energetic and brave enough to do things
your way. If you can’t do that, you can’t call yourself any kind
of artist, however minor.

I travel around the
east a lot. The huge cities, polluted and corrupt. And of course, the
rich, isolated, protected. I realised that I didn’t care anymore
for conforming to industrial stereotypes. You know the drill. Fetish,
goths, Hellraiser, Terminator, blah. I realised that I could write
what I wanted. Electronic music used to be a hotbed of intelligence,
not cliché. So I decided to write about what I saw.

The sessions felt
dreamlike. I sealed myself off from the outside world. I was all
alone in a massive studio. Nothing penetrated. It was like I was the
last person on earth.

IVM: How did you
find the process of writing a solo album differed from your past
work?

MH: I had to
learn a lot of things I might have delegated before. I had to play a
lot of parts, in every sense of the word. I had to sing, then judge
and edit my vocals on the fly. That’s tough.

I also had to learn to
mix properly. Normally I’d let someone else lead that process. I
got a lot better through necessity.

I like collaboration.
But the interesting thing about your own work is that it’s a
mirror. You get to see yourself, warts and all.

IVM: The video
for 'Adult Fiction' was stunning. How did that come about and can we
expect any other videos to accompany the album?

MH: The 'Adult
Fiction' video director was Gabriel Edvy. She was working with
Cubanate on our live visuals. She nagged me to do a video, and I was
liking what she was doing for Cubanate so I let her loose on 'Adult
Fiction'. We haggled around a few ideas at the start but after that I
just let Gabby do her thing. I was delighted with the end result.

I do think that the
songs on 'The Hum' are very visual though. Each lyric reads like a
mini-film. They are mostly stories. So I do like to think I give a
filmmaker something to get their choppers into.

IVM: Your last
release was the 'Compound Eye Sessions' EP with Raymond Watts – how
did that come about and are there any more plans for similar
releases?

MH: 'Compound
Eye' was recorded well before 'The Gospel'. I like chucking Raymond
ideas. I’d worked on 'Pigmata', a decade previously. But that had
been the last PIG album at that point. So I hadn’t seen Raymond in
a dog’s age and then I ran into him in a bar. He said he wanted to
try making a 'Pigmata' follow up.

We were both at a loose
end creatively so I dragged him into the studio. We tooled around
with making an album but it didn’t get too far before I left for
Singapore. So I released the scraps as 'Compound Eye', some tracks
with Raymond’s vocals, some with mine. I always like working on
PIG. I’ve already tossed him a tune for the new album.

I’d like to do
similar collaborations with other people but I find that you really
need to be in the same room.

IVM: Many industrial
bands today are still influenced by the work you were doing in the
90s. Is this a position you're comfortable?

MH: Sure thing.
I don’t mind being an elder statesman. Cubanate were ahead of our
time and I’m glad to have sown some seeds. Some of the new bands
that have taken it on board are great.

But I like to keep
moving. I’ve never felt completely comfortable in the “pure”
industrial scene. I find it a bit one-dimensional.

IVM: Are there
any bands around today that have particularly captured your attention
recently?

MH: I don’t
see too many bands live out here. The last live show I saw in
Singapore was Charli XCX at the Asian TV Awards. Dave Bianchi from
Cubanate in the old days is her manager now. It was a weird trip;
backstage with Charli and all these glamorous Korean TV stars in in
Oscar’s style gowns.

In the scene? Well,
Mistress Kanga of course. There’s something deceptive and alluring
about her voice, which I like. She sings in that west coast
prescription med drone and you find yourself drawn in. But don’t
tell her I said that. She’ll only get cocky.

I still can’t gear
that grinning, gurning brand of “emotional” electronic music.
That “boys behind keyboards” thing. It’s so suburban. Who is
that dude who promotes his tours with a cartoon of himself winking in
a pork pie hat and a wine glass? Aesthetic Something. Christ.

IVM: The reformation
of Cubanate as a live act has been music to a lot of people's ears,
first with the appearance at Cold Waves festival and now with UK tour
dates announced – is this a limited engagement or can we expect
more from Cubanate in the future?

MH: I think
more. But we’re both a bit reclusive these days. And we’re on
other sides of the world. It’s hard.

Still, we enjoyed it,
so we’ll play live a few more times I’m sure.

IVM: There was
talk of a Cubanate retrospective album. Is this still the case?

MH: Yes. There’s
a compilation of remastered versions of 15 songs from the first three
albums coming out in May. It’s called 'Brutalism', it’s on
Armalyte Industries.

I was kind of hoping
that we’d discover some “lost gems” but the fact is that we
released almost everything that we recorded. The new masters sound
good though.

IVM: Cubanate
aside, are there any plans to take 'The Hum' on the road?

IVM: You've
relocated to Singapore – how has this affected you musically and
culturally?

MH: I like being
here. I look at the west very differently now. The idea of being
somewhere strange, not speaking the language has always fascinated
me. Musically I do feel isolated, but perversely I find that
liberating. I’m not looking over my shoulder at other people.

Mind you, a few years
away gives my view of Europe a rose tint. I do get pangs of
homesickness. Less so in the winter months.

IVM: In addition to
your musical work you've released a book – 'The Sussex Devils' –
can you give us some background into how that came about?

MH: I never
meant to write a book. I found an old clipping about a court case in
the UK. It got me curious about the past and I started making notes,
scribbling things down. I found that I had about 60,000 words and I
sent it the raw idea off to some agents. Several liked it and one
agent, Robert Dinsdale at AM Heath encouraged me to finish it.

The book is about the
hysteria surrounding Satanism in the 1980’s in the UK and also
about Evangelical religion. Actually it’s about more than that.
It’s about the past, youth and friendship at its core. When you
reach a certain age you begin to see your life in a broader
historical perspective. That’s impossible when you’re young,
you’re too close to it, too self-absorbed.

IVM: How do you
feel the book was received and are there plans for more?

MH: It was well
received, but quietly. It sells steadily but slowly. Again, I make no
complaints. It’s a strange, dark book. I wouldn’t expect it to be
everyone’s cup of tequila.

I love writing. But it
takes a huge amount of time to do it well. And like music, I have to
be motivated. I can’t just do it to order. I’m dysfunctional like
that. I wish I could be one of those write-on-command,
please-the-public sorts of artist. But I have too many blanks, blind
spots, dead ends.

IVM: Finally, are
there any plans for a follow-up to 'The Hum' planned or any more
collaborations for 2017?

MH: I’d like
to get a follow up released this year. I’ve just started to write
again. I’m a bit low, it’s not coming easy right now. I wanted to
do something more upbeat after 'The Hum', but everything I’ve
written so far is very bleak and slow. And very left-wing. I try to
write a punchy, club-friendly number and it comes out as an 80bpm
dirge called “Communism In Theory And Practise”. I can hardly see
that one setting the charts afire, can you?

I don’t know. I’m
bipolar. I get into a trough of paranoia. I can never trust myself
not to just throw it all in the bin. But I’ve also learned to
persist.